I want to use my recovery email [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed]@live.co.uk as my first choice email

Question

I want to use my recovery email [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed]@live.co.uk as my first choice email address.

This was my first choice email which was lost during transfer to another phone.

I also have a problem in that when I log in there is an email begining with [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed] @ hotmail

which appears.. THIS IS NOT MY EMAIL I DONT RECOGNISE THIS E MAIL>

Answer 1

Hi Bill Keith,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.

Seeing an unrecognized address during sign-in can be concerning. You can start by trying the steps suggested by Q&A Assist: review your list of aliases and set your preferred address as the primary one under Manage how you sign in (https://account.live.com/names/manage).

Additionally, please review your Security info (verification/recovery methods). If the “@hotmail” address appears as a destination for verification codes, remove it there and keep only the email/phone methods that you control.

Important: a “recovery email” is not always the same as the account’s primary alias. Your @live.co.uk address needs to be listed as an alias in order to be set as the primary sign-in name.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further updates, thanks.

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Answer 2

To make the recovery email the main sign-in address and to deal with the unknown “la*@hotmail” address, use these steps:

1. Go to the Microsoft account alias management page: Manage how you sign in to your account and sign in.
2. Under Account aliases / Account username:
   • If the ******@live.co.uk address is already listed, select Make primary next to it to make it the first-choice (primary) email.
   • If it is not listed, add it as an alias first (if available), then select Make primary.
3. To remove the unknown la*@hotmail address:
   • In the same Manage how you sign in page, find that alias and select Remove next to it.
   • Note: If that la*@hotmail address is currently the primary alias, first choose another alias (for example ******@live.co.uk) and select Make primary, then remove the unwanted alias.

Important behavior to be aware of when removing aliases:

• If an alias from a Microsoft domain (such as @hotmail.com, @live.com, @outlook.com, or @msn.com) is removed, that alias is permanently deleted and cannot be associated with any Microsoft account again.
• If an alias from a non-Microsoft domain (for example @gmail.com) is removed, it usually becomes available to add to another Microsoft account.

If, when signing in or managing aliases, the sign-in process shows verification options (phone/email) that are not recognized, select I don't have any of these and follow the prompts to update the security info. If the account cannot be accessed or the correct alias cannot be selected because of sign-in problems, use the account recovery options, including the Sign-in Helper or the account recovery form, and provide as much accurate information as possible.

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References:

• Add or remove an email alias in Outlook.com
• Common problems with two-step verification for a work or school account
• Help with the Microsoft account recovery form
• Help with "phone number is already used" in a Microsoft account